Aatma's protagonist named after Bipasha Basu's niece

The makers of Bipasha Basu's forthcoming supernatural film Aatma may be keeping the identity of its central character — a six-year-old-girl — under wraps but the leading lady has already chosen a name for the child's on-screen character. Since the young girl reminds Bipasha of her own niece, she fondly calls her by her kin’s name.

With the excellent chemistry that the two of them have established, the makers have even retained the name, Nia, as the name of her character on screen.

“Bipasha plays the child’s mother in the film. She grew so emotionally attached to the kid that she started calling her Nia on the sets. So we kept the same name for her character in the film as well,” says director Suparn Verma.

In the film, actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui plays Bipasha’s husband. The pairing might have caused many in the media to raise their eyebrows, but Verma is confident of his decision.

“This pairing worked very well for us. For Bipasha's husband’s character, we needed someone who could push the envelope,” says Verma. Though he refuses to divulge details about the film’s plot, he says that the story is shaped from an original idea. “I had been developing the story for a long time. It’s not inspired or adapted from anything.”